Yesterday, I had a unique thing happen. In 30 years of playing Dungeons & Dragons and 25 years of dungeon mastering I have experienced a total party kill a couple of times and my main character died so many times during my first 10 years of playing D&D that it became a joke. But never had I refereed a game that resulted in a total party kill and that is exactly what happened yesterday with the first encounter of the new adventure we started.
I new the encounter would be tough and I scaled back some of the criteria for monsters. I eliminated the surprise attack round, took away the +1 to hit for the hopping special attack, and always failed my initiative roll so that I attacked last each round. Once things started going badly, I reduced the amount of damage they did with each attack to try to prolong the combat and give the characters an opportunity even the numbers but it never happened. The players could not make enough hits and were plagued by bad dice rolling. I also underestimated the impact of the number of attacks that each individual opponent had and how the damage, no matter how trivial, really added up quick.
The players were demoralized and upset, justifiably. I tried to offer restarting the scenario and ignore the results of the first encounter but there was grumbling that it felt like cheating to ignore the character party being wiped out. Some new numbers were generated for new characters for possibly starting a new campaign but one of the players hasn't decided if he wants to play any more and another doesn't want to invest time in a character if he's just going to die again. The experience was demoralizing for everybody involved and really derailed our afternoon. We were finally able to pull it together enough to play some card games for a couple of hours and salvage some game time but I don't know what the future holds for our monthly game day yet.
Part of the problem is trying to scale the games. Most adventures are created for 4-5 characters and I'm refereeing for 3. I've tried to scale the encounter down, fudge hit rolls and damage rolls and not take advantage of special abilities but I need to figure out how to actually overhaul some of the encounters so they are more appropriately balanced. I haven't dmed in almost a decade which has contributed to some rustiness on my part. And I'm trying to play with 4th edition rules in one game but referee with 2nd edition rules in another game which has created some confusion as the 2 rules sets are drastically different. It would be great to convert the game to 4th edition and focus on just 1 rule set but I'm the only one among that group that has the newest rules and I don't think they are inclined to spend money on new rules, especially because we've only played about 9 times in the last year.
Maybe it's time to start playing board games again.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
8 Month Check-up & Life In General
I spent the last 2 fridays meeting with the surgeon's assistant and my primary care physician regarding my gastric bypass surgery on January 29th. Everything seems to be great. I'm down 212 pounds to 309 and I'm no longer considered diabetic with a 3 month post-medication A1C score of 5.4. My total cholesterol is down to 154 and my LDL to HDL ratio is 4.6. Some of my nutrition levels are a little off but improving.
My fitness level is also improving. I typically walk 3 miles a day at least 5 days a week and feel much better physically. No joint pain or any real issues with mobility any more. Emotionally I still have moments where for no perceivable reason I get upset, angry, or depressed. Don't know what to do about those yet but I work through them and try to feel better. Those times are still the hardest part of the post-surgery experience.
Elizabeth started school the tuesday after Labor Day and is loving it. We should have started her in pre-school a year ago but we were worried about the change and we want her to be our "little" girl for as long as possible. She comes home with new information everyday and is starting to recognize letters, numbers, and some words already. I'm very excited for her future.
Amy is in her first semester as a department chair and the experience is not a very positive one for her. She has employees that don't cooperate with her or each other and don't do their jobs. It has been upsetting to realize how unprofessional some people can be. I really want her to find another job at another college. We'll have to wait and see.
My gaming life is not going as well as I would like it to but what's new there. I did run my 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons game again for the first time since Spring in September and we finally finished the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh adventure. I've been reading the second installment, Danger at Dunwater, and should be ready to start it this Sunday when we meet again. The 4th edition game that was meeting at Joel's only managed to play 1 game before it fell apart. And the online 4th edition game Joel is running with Maptools and Ventrilo is a lot of fun but still not as much fun as a face-to-face game. I may find myself in a position where I have to get up to speed with the 4th edition rules and try to run my own game. I really like the rule set and have invested a fair amount of money in rule books for the current edition of D&D.
Probably the aspect of gaming I have been most succesful at is collecting and spending money. I now have 24 of the 42 little black books from the original Traveller science fiction role-playing game from the early 1980s. Traveller is a game I did not play very much but is a rule set I really loved and I occasionally check out ebay to see if I can pick up some books cheap. I was also able to pick up a starter set for the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons miniature game for $0.53 at Borders books with coupons and credits I had. I didn't own it 2 days before I bought my first expansion booster for the game. This collector bug could really kick into high gear if I'm not careful with this game. I need to find a source for some cheap single common minis and get a good collection of core models and try to avoid the new booster packs when I can. It is a game that could lead to some casual weekend gaming and some new contacts if I make the time. I could really use some new gaming contacts.
Well, that's about I think of to report on about what's going on lately. Life is good and things are going well. I could not ask for any more and I am greatful for everything in my life.
My fitness level is also improving. I typically walk 3 miles a day at least 5 days a week and feel much better physically. No joint pain or any real issues with mobility any more. Emotionally I still have moments where for no perceivable reason I get upset, angry, or depressed. Don't know what to do about those yet but I work through them and try to feel better. Those times are still the hardest part of the post-surgery experience.
Elizabeth started school the tuesday after Labor Day and is loving it. We should have started her in pre-school a year ago but we were worried about the change and we want her to be our "little" girl for as long as possible. She comes home with new information everyday and is starting to recognize letters, numbers, and some words already. I'm very excited for her future.
Amy is in her first semester as a department chair and the experience is not a very positive one for her. She has employees that don't cooperate with her or each other and don't do their jobs. It has been upsetting to realize how unprofessional some people can be. I really want her to find another job at another college. We'll have to wait and see.
My gaming life is not going as well as I would like it to but what's new there. I did run my 2nd edition Dungeons & Dragons game again for the first time since Spring in September and we finally finished the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh adventure. I've been reading the second installment, Danger at Dunwater, and should be ready to start it this Sunday when we meet again. The 4th edition game that was meeting at Joel's only managed to play 1 game before it fell apart. And the online 4th edition game Joel is running with Maptools and Ventrilo is a lot of fun but still not as much fun as a face-to-face game. I may find myself in a position where I have to get up to speed with the 4th edition rules and try to run my own game. I really like the rule set and have invested a fair amount of money in rule books for the current edition of D&D.
Probably the aspect of gaming I have been most succesful at is collecting and spending money. I now have 24 of the 42 little black books from the original Traveller science fiction role-playing game from the early 1980s. Traveller is a game I did not play very much but is a rule set I really loved and I occasionally check out ebay to see if I can pick up some books cheap. I was also able to pick up a starter set for the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons miniature game for $0.53 at Borders books with coupons and credits I had. I didn't own it 2 days before I bought my first expansion booster for the game. This collector bug could really kick into high gear if I'm not careful with this game. I need to find a source for some cheap single common minis and get a good collection of core models and try to avoid the new booster packs when I can. It is a game that could lead to some casual weekend gaming and some new contacts if I make the time. I could really use some new gaming contacts.
Well, that's about I think of to report on about what's going on lately. Life is good and things are going well. I could not ask for any more and I am greatful for everything in my life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
